More about dictionaries and glossaries

Multilingual dictionaries and glossaries are similar in that they both show terminology translations. However, they are used differently in Google Translator Toolkit:

Glossaries contain term translations uploaded by users.

If we find matching glossary terms in the segment you're currently translating, we'll load those terms, their definitions, and their parts-of-speech in the Glossary tab.

The glossary tab shows the number of glossary matches in the current segment. For example, if no matches are found, the glossary tab shows Glossary (0). Similarly if the glossary finds 3 matches, the glossary tab shows Glossary (3).

We enclose the glossary match in the current, source segment with a dashed box. The box only appears for exact matches and does not support stemming for variants of the word stem. For example, if the glossary contains a translation for "develop," the box will appear around "develop" but not around "develops." However, the glossary tab should still show glossary matches for the derivatives of the source stem.

Dictionaries are term translations that we find in our existing database.

When you click on the Dictionary tab, you can run ad hoc searches for translations for any term, regardless of whether we find the search term in the segment you're currently translating.